Modi made the statement in December 2019 in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. “See if anything has happened on NRC, the opposition is spreading lies
New Delhi: As the central government continues to face flak over the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday questioned why there should be objections to it as India has the right to know how many citizens and foreigners are living here.
While addressing a rally in Mangaluru, Rajnath Singh said: “NRC par main kehna chahata hoon. Kya kisi desh ko yeh nahi pata hona chahiye ki desh mein kitne swadeshi hain, kitne videshi hain? NRC agar aa bhi jata hai toh kya pareshani hain?(On NRC, I want to say, shouldn’t every nation know how many citizens and foreigners live on its soil? What is the problem if NRC is implemented?).
Defending the BJP led government, he said that it is not our government that initiated the NRC. “NRC naam ki chidiya hum log lekar nahi aaye thhe…. NRC naam ki chidiya Supreme Court ke aadesh par iske pehle Congress ne..,” (we did not bring NRC. It was brought by the Congress government at the orders of the Supreme Court), he said, adding that now the blame of this NRC is being laid on BJP.
His remarks come weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a rally said that there has been no discussion on NRC yet. Modi made the statement in December 2019 in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan. “See if anything has happened on NRC, the opposition is spreading lies. From the time BJP government came in 2014 till today, there was no discussion on NRC,” the PM had said.
The defence minister Rajnath Singh also clarified on the recently Citizenship Amendment Act saying that the government came up with CAA to safeguard minorities in the adjoining regions. “Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are not secular states. Three of them are theocratic states. Islam is the religion of these three states. India’s religion is not Hinduism but a secular nation. That is the reason those who follow Islam cannot be persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan,” Singh added.
Singh also stated that the Muslims from these three countries can get citizenship through due process.
Several protests have erupted in various parts of India over the CAA and NRC.
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